Riku's Contest History
Who is Riku? In the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, Riku and Sora are the best of friends. Unfortunately, this friendship is soon put to the test as Riku decides that life on Destiny Island isn't enough for him. Riku and Sora, despite being friends were always having friendly little competitions with each other, be it fighting with wooden swords or simply having footraces. It's hinted that both characters are in love with and are in competition, but not a whole lot is made of this early on. The crew eventually decides to build a raft and leave Destiny Island, though they don't leave the island on the best of terms. The Heartless attack and swallow the island the night before they're all to leave, and Sora, Riku and Kairi all get split up in an entirely new world unknown to them. Riku's desire and ambition make him an easy target for Maleficent's manipulation tactics, and it isn't long before she has Riku using the power of darkness for his own and turning on Sora. The two have a very symbolic, nasty rivalry all throughout Kingdom Hearts that features some of the best fights in the game (and Riku's voice actor in battle is amazing), and it isn't until the very end of the game that we figure out how the relationship between Riku and Sora turns out. And it's worth noting that Riku's love of Kairi truly comes out when he has the darkness on his side, and that Kairi's fate isn't decided until the tail end of the game, either. Riku's character archetype isn't the most original out there (conflicted, badassed anti-hero), but it always seems to work well in Square titles. Kingdom Hearts is no exception. "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" - Riku Riku's Contest History Win-Loss Record: 4-7 Summer 2005 Contest - Zebes Division - 4 Seed * Zebes Round 1 --- Lost to (5) Frog, 45455 48.33% - 48604 51.67% * Extrapolated Strength --- 36th Place 22.12% One has to wonder if Riku's match goes any differently if both he and Frog are new characters to the contest field. Frog was the massive favorite going into his match with Riku, yet Riku managed to go from being doubled to cutting Frog's percentage all the way down to less than 52% through the course of the match. Not only did this help to expose Frog long before samus could, but it gave us an ultra-rare close SFF match. Riku was never really close to actually beating Frog, but he did win several updates throughout the match. And even with Frog's total annihilation at the hands of Samus, Riku's X-Stat strength is still pretty decent. It's tough to say whether or not Riku rSFFd Frog or what have you, but his match in Summer 2005 was one of the very rare examples of an impressive one and done performance. It would be nice to see Riku return to a future contest to see how he does. Summer 2006 Contest - Patriot Division - 3 Seed * Patriot Round 1 --- Lost to (6) Yoshi, 56325 44.80% - 69394 55.20% * Extrapolated Strength --- 17th Place 36.00% One of these days, Riku won't get stuck behind some green animal and will end up winning a match. He's too popular not to. Summer 2007 Contest - Division 7 - Fourth Group * Division 7 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 34243 27.25% - Ryu Hayabusa, 57670 45.80% - Roxas, 22253 17.67% - Haseo, 11695 9.29% * Division 7 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 24596 19.43% - Solid Snake, 60407 47.72% - Ryu Hayabusa, 23942 18.91% - Nightmare, 17654 13.94% * Division 7 Finals --- 4th place, 25656 18.02% - Solid Snake, 46201 32.44% - L-Block, 40774 28.63% - Kratos, 29772 20.91% This was supposed to be the year that Riku broke through and finally won a match. While he made it all the way to the third round, he has still yet to win a match outright. The board was shocked in the first round when Ryu Hayabusa destroyed their group, although Roxas was in the group. Many people thought that dropping Roxas from the poll wouldn't be enough, but Riku somehow managed to pull off a comeback over Hayabusa and advance. He finished last in the division finals, but that's not too shameful considering the competition. Summer 2008 Contest - Division 7 - Third Group * Division 7 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 34861 27.43% - Leon Kennedy, 53832 42.36% - Siegfried Schtauffen, 21353 16.80% - Captain MacMillan, 17022 13.40% * Division 7 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 31381 22.23% - Dante, 47863 33.90% - Leon Kennedy, 43486 30.80% - Hogger, 18460 13.07% Riku advanced as expected in his first match but couldn't get passed Dante or Leon in his second. No new KH game had been released since KH2 so Riku had nothing to gain from his last outing. The two new games coming out in the future may be what he needs despite his role in the game. Winter 2010 Contest - Midgar Division - 5 Seed * Midgar Round 1 --- Defeated (12) Ramza Beoulve, 30017 62.31% - 18155 37.69% * Midgar Round 2 --- Lost to (4) Captain Falcon, 32940 47.52% - 36378 52.48% * Extrapolated Strength --- 38th Place 26.56% The new Kingdom Hearts games must have had some impact on Riku as he looked stronger. A lot of people had him advancing over Falcon but Falcon has never had a really good match to determine his strength. A possible Kingdom Hearts III release could be the thing Riku needs. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 9 - 12 Seed * Division 9 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 7470 30.17% - (7) Charizard, 14647 59.16% - (21) Nier, 2640 10.66% Despite the announcement of Kingdom Hearts III during E3 it was not enough to reverse the fortunes of its characters. Riku was almost doubled by Charizard when during his height he would have easily broke 40%. A boost may come after the release of the game or at the very least when more information, including if he's even in the game comes out. 'Fall 2018 Contest '- Division 6 - 13 Seed *Division 6 Round 1 --- Lost to (4) Bayonetta, 10665 35.60% - 19289 64.40% With Kingdom Hearts III still not out yet and Smash Ultimate being the main "hype upcoming game" of the moment, Bayonetta was actually considered a slight favorite here despite being a "recent character" (2010, but the site considers everything from the past 10-15 years "recent") and being a non-Nintendo, non-Square, non-RPG character going up against a character from a popular Square RPG series (though it could be argued that Bayonetta is considered pseudo-Nintendo.) Come the actual match, Riku proved more than deserving of his role as underdog as he was never in the match, winning just 8 updates all day, all of them during the second half of the match. Category:Contest Histories